Just when we were smiling, Allardyce came along and wrapped his size 11 sweaty socks round our faces. It seems the choice is simple: we get relegated and Allardyce goes; or we stay up and Allardyce stays.
So it's heads we lose, tails we lose.
The joy of supporting West Ham United!
23 comments:
Big Gob to West Ham, Big Sam to Leeds-straight swap.
What a silly article. We lose because we stay up? Why would we want to lose a manager who brought us back up in his first season and has got us in a comfortable mid table position in our first year back up.
As for entertainment value, as a season ticket holder I have found most of our home games really exciting this year. We'd be mad to lose allardyce
I've been running myself ragged on your last post HF backing your points but be careful what you wish for. We were strong Saturday (I was there). He did what Pardew couldn't do in one season for us and he's kept us alive in the most important season financially.
He's a complete nightmare a lot of the time but he's a safe pair of hands to steady the ship. With a few good summer signings we could do well next season if we keep Andy Carroll who has been really all round excellent since his return from injury. More importantly we won't get relegated. It's all about finances for a couple seasons.
He won't last forever at West Ham. That's even if the owners decide to offer him a new contract. There's a lot of other good mangers beginning available.
Personally I'd LOVE DiCanio or even Poyet, Martinez etc but with our current situation we'd do worse than Meatloaf for one more go round the roundabout..
I've posted along those lines 1051, but it does feel as if Allardyce is rubbing it in!
Agree 100% with your Parker comments but please cut out the F word!
You remind me of Big Sam. Nobody particularly likes you and you're both adding to an already questionable reputation of West Ham United. Both make iffy decisions, with questionable motives. Both go about the job in a pretty cheap and highly unimaginative way.
The only difference is I guess Sam is a successful manager. Where as you are just attention seeking and add nothing of any worth.
He has a worth, but you're like an embarrassing family member, utterly useless and only wanted by a few likeminded attention craving fools.
Yeah ok HF point taken on the swears.
I think you are somewhat deluded if you think we can do any better than Allardyce at the moment. We need stability for once at our club and that is what fat Sam will bring. Being a season ticket holder i for one would prefer watching us in the Prem season after season and gradually improving each year rather than going through manager after manager and having a term in the Championship then the Prem and so on and so on, leave the yo yo fun and frolics to the likes of the Readings, Southamptons etc etc. No offence to both clubs on that note but we are a bigger club and should be playing against the best of the best in the English league. Remember staying in the Prem means greater cash flow through tv rights which in turn will help with our current financial situation and we dont want to be a club moving to one of the best stadiums in London only to be fighting in the league below!!! We may not all agree with Sam's ways but get behind the man stop slagging the guy off for christ sake!!!!!! COYI
Oh yeah, great idea, let's get rid of Sam and go back to playing the old way, fighting relegation until the final day year after year and eventually having to play in the championship, until we get promoted and do it all again.
We were amongst the favourites for relegation at the beginning of the season. In all likelihood we are staying up now.
I think some of us are getting a bit carried away with our expectations.
Let Sam keep us up for a few years, then if need be we can go for someone who plays more attractively and let them spend some of that olympic stadium attendance money.
Are you talking about the comment in which I stated to HF to be careful what he wishes for? I think you misread my point. I'm definitely not a Tottenham fan.
I was making the point that we could do a lot worse than have Sam in charge for another couple of seasons (don't know about 5, let's not go nuts just yet eh).
The above managers have all been touted by media due to some poor, boring displays. A la Aston Villa being the latest. I'm well aware of the position we were in and if we lost to Stoke we'd be back on the brink. Allardyce has done well but he's also done some pretty dodgey stuff. He can be tolerated through all that as long as he's lubricating the cogs and getting points.
Anyway all this is moot because once I saw him throw up the crossed Irons at Stoke all was forgiven. It's too easy to be fickle where Big Sam's concerned for some reason.
It was posted as Anonymous btw not Careful what you wish for, why you calling me that? You just took a line from my comment haha. COYI
Big Sam may give us stabillity but we are only just outside a relegation fight me for one would rather see some football played on the ground rather than getting a stiff neck and yes Di canio maybe unproven and poyet too but that does not mean they will get us relegated but i think the football would improve and possibly attract some quality players not the average players we have now!
I was thinking about that this morning. As you say Sam is stable but would we really have won any less games? It's too tough to call. You just know DiCanio has it in his locker to defy the world & round up some top top quality players. Then again I see the owners' point about achieving financial stability. Don't think I could cope with relegation again... COYI
Well said the guy 2 above proper fans who have paid to watch West Ham home & away for many years have had highs & lows we have had great players a lot of dodgy onesl like the managers but as fans we stay loyal to the men in claret & blue as for teams of ours this one as got to be one of the poorest there's no superstar that shines I know we had Bobby Geoff Martin in the 60s then Brooking Bonds Lampard 70s then in the 80s Macavennie Cottee Dicks Martin Gale & then our new god arrived in the late. 90s Paolo Di Canio a Legend who bleeds claret n blue not like Macari Roeder Curbishley Zola & Grant & defo not Allardyce our football is dire at times most times no quality just bargain bucket players which other clubs wudnt touch as for G & S you may think there saviours for me no they say they love West Ham so why don't they put money in to do East stand up so our ground holds around 45000 that wud be plenty as wot happens to the pubs & food places that we have drank & ate in before & after the game they only survive when we are at home so G & S want to cut there throats as well as ours I do not like them one bit & look at Fernandes puts he's money where is club is & he's a hammer oh wot we cudve done with the dosh he as splashed out rather than the same old crap we aint got none were in debt to me that = no ambition that's why we get a dross manager dross football as players are medicore I'd have liked Fernandes as the debt wudve been paid plus we wud be watching the likes of Remy not a donkey like Carroll I can dream as its like our song I won't hold my breath & I'm glad to be bowing out at 45 years of going to Upton Park after this season as if I wanted neck ache I wudve followed Wimbledon years ago not a happy hammer I love the club not the owners or manager nor the players just the name West Ham
Interesting from Joe Cole. Shame Parker didn't feel the same way.
“I had seven great years at Chelsea...I was left with two real options — Liverpool or Spurs.
“Spurs was probably the best option because they were offering me a five-year deal and it meant I could stay in familiar surroundings.
“But I just couldn’t do it, I just couldn’t see myself pulling that Spurs shirt over my head.
“With the rivalry between Spurs and West Ham and Chelsea, it felt a bit mercenary.”
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4826463/Joe-Cole-amits-Liverpool-move-was-wrong.html
Nobody seems to bring up that last fact. My wife is new to football and first match she went to was under Grant at the back end of the season. Within six months, the squad she had become familiar with had been cleared out, new manager, Olympic Stadium talk was getting real. She depressed me with the realisation that the badge is the only thing that you can rely on not to change. That's ultimately what it boils down to though.
I'm now trying to convince her that it's slowly getting better than the back-to-back 0-0 draws she had to suffer last season at home. Can't remember the other one but Bristol City was definitely a game I haven't managed to forget. Watching Faye & Reid lump box to box long balls @ lone striker Cole & later Maynard!! No clue how to get round the bus they parked. Painful viewing. I'm not generally one for getting on the band wagon but that was like watching tennis for 90 minutes.
I do want to see us debt free I think that's important. If QPR don't manage to stay up, they're badly screwed financially. Bumper TV payouts make remaining in the PL this year the be all and end all.
The East End as we know it will be dead once the move goes through. The place has been on the down since I was a child in the early 80s. Without match day, it will be game over. I just hope Stratford isn't sterile. Swansea, Stoke, Reading, Man City etc are all grounds on effectively retail parks and they definitely lack a buzz which makes them worse for it.
You should post that on the previous article. Might knock a bit of sense into a few people. Joe Cole broke a lot of hearts when he joined Chelsea but that's just skyrocketed my estimation of him.
You just don't get it do you, 0956.
Supporting our great club isn't about WHERE we finish it is about HOW we get there.
I appreciate BFS might give us a bit of stability but I would gladly trade 5 consecutive 14th place finishes for a couple of relegations/promotions provided the spectacle was of an acceptable standard.
We need to appreciate that unlike other big clubs were not here to challenge for trophies. Why else did we choose to follow the Hammers?
This is why I agree 100% with HF in that Allardyce needs to go end of this season. However, a better replacement would have to be Zola (can't believe he hasn't already been mentioned tbh).
Zola hasn't been mentioned because G&S would blatantly never take him back. He should've been given a chance under new ownership but they bit the bullet. They probably regret it in hindsight but they won't go back. They can't can they. It makes them look weak-minded.
They employed Avram Grant...these are the kinds of footballing decisions these guys are capable of. Wouldnt expect them to have the wisdom to see what a Zola could do for us. Zola's turning into the perfect West Ham manager, isn't he? Style of play, player development...it's what we want.
13.10. Of course we would all love to get great barcelonaesq quick passing football that also brings success but the truth is you can't just snap your fingers and happen overnight. Rome wasn't built in a day. Allardyce was the perfect man to bring in and steady the ship after the disastrous couple of seasons we had under Zola (where we just survived with a measly 35 points) and Avram grant where we got relegated. Under both managers we attempted to play such passing football or the supposed 'west ham way' and look where it got us. We simply can't afford or didnt have the players to pull it off.
Allardyce, whilst by no means perfect will guarantee us survival for a few seasons and perhaps even better. I cannot see a better alternative at this moment in time. Di Canio? We all love him but let's face it we have no idea how he will do. Stories such as subbing a 20 year old keeper 20 minutes into a match and breaking into Swindon at midnight after resigning to steal pictures suggests someone who could rock the boat and undo all the good work and stability allardyce has brought. I also simply don't accept your premise that we'd rather be a relegation/yo yo club than a solid premier league team. I don't believe most supporters really want that and i certainly dont. i detested our relegation seasons. Who are we supposed to be playing this great football against? Barnsley?
Suppose we are still a stable mid table team in a few years when we are due to move to the os. We may then be able to get a greater revenue and attract investment or even a new takeover. It is at this point we can start growing as a club and looking to gain more success with a new manager who has got the players to play that sort of football we'd all love to see.
I know you won't all agree with me but this is my view about the club I love and have supported all my life and been a season ticket holder for the previous 6 years. Sorry about the length of the post
Stani, if only we had Zola a few years later. He has qualities but he lacked the experience when he came to us. It was too soon.
Anony-mouse says,
Turned again HF? Oh well, t'was always going to happen.
For those calling for the loosest of loose cannons, the unpredictable, mad, unsettling, stay nowhere for more than two minutes Di Canio- oh dear! If he hadn't worn the shirt we'd just look at him in an amused, bemused way and wonder which footblling apple cart he was going to tip over next.
And to those saying they'd rather we continued a yo-yo existence rather than have a few years in the Premiership- do you even pay attention to the financial situation of the club or do you only switch on to the club between 3 pm and 5pm on a Saturday?
Relegation, without a quick promotion could realistically see the end of West Ham. You might be prepared for that in the name of instant excitement and entertainment but forgive those of us who don't want see a risk to the very existence of our club.
I'm more than a tad fed up that selfish, want now, now, now fans put their dislike of a manager who got us promoted in his first season and will keep us up in his second, ahead of the good of West Ham.
Not quite turned Anony-mouse, more a repressed bi as far as Allardyce is concerned! See my reply at 1102 and track back to when I warned that there's one thing worse than appointing Allardyce, and that's sacking Allardyce. Also see my report on the Stoke game where I contrasted our "style" with the truly crude Pulis style.
This article was provoked by Allardyce deliberately twisting the knife on the back of that one win away. It was like a kid saying na na na na na. Irritating. And that's the thing, at times he seems to court the dislike of the purists. There is a nasty belligerence about the man as he tramples and stamps upon the small urchin of our hopes and dreams.
Anyway, good to see you looking in. How are things? Trust you and the family are well.
Anony-mouse says,
Yep, I'm fine HF. I'm redundant as from the Summer- voluntary on my part after 30 years with the same mob. Will miss much from my time as a public servant but want out before Osborne and co make me an employee of the likes of G4S or some other incompetent, money fixated wotnots. I seem to have a few promising irons in the fire so I'm not scared of the big wide world that awaits.
Hope you and yours are good- are you still in sunny Bucharest?
By the way, I get the irritation that Allardyce can bring to some. He can be abrasive, particularly when he's made to feel defensive. But then you and me are just the same as we both know from previous jousts :)
I just think that it's best to detach what you might think personally about the bloke and look at what he's doing for the club. That's really all that matters. Whether he ruffles the feathers of over sensitive types is neither here nor there.
We finished last season in a better position than we'd started it. The same looks to be true this season. I bet we'll see more of the same next season if we still have him (which I'm not convinced is a dead cert btw) . Gradual, stable progress may not be sexy but gives us our best chance of long term success. And that's what we all want HF.
Btw- really glad you've seperated the West Ham stuff from the Leeds stuff- that drove me round the bend!
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